Sir Henry Cecil and his Warren Place team tell Telegraph Sport about life with
a superstar as colt seeks to extend his unbeaten run at Ascot.

Sir Henry Cecil, the master trainer of Britain’s greatest racehorse, insists he is just a pawn in the painstaking operation to deliver the sport’s most precious treasure to Royal Ascot in pristine condition this week.

“I try to keep out of Frankel’s way because he gets fed up with me,” he says. “He probably doesn’t even know who I am.”

Cecil instead sings the praises of “Team Frankel”. From Dee, the lass who has to feed racing’s most insatiable appetite, to Sandy, who talks Indian cricket to keep the horse happy, to Shane, who cannot quite believe his luck at having a daily spin on his back. On a visit to Warren Place one can see that while Team Frankel tries to treat him like just another colt, everyone here is in thrall to him.

Cecil himself cannot hide it. As his unbeaten colossus guns for an 11th straight victory, in the Queen Anne Stakes, part of the QIPCO British Champions Series which will launch Royal Ascot week on Tuesday, he talks with incredible affection about perhaps the finest horse he has handled in a stellar 43-year career.

“The thing is that after a while, they become your friends, don’t they. He’s a character,” he says. “Like I find with a lot of good horses, he has a little something about him, a presence, a bit of panache.

“He’s got an air about him, he knows he’s good. And you do grow more attached to the older horses.”

But it is only when Sir Henry and wife Jane reflect on the day a cloud was placed over the horse’s future in April that you begin to understand the strength of that attachment.

Jane admits to crying when she saw Sir Henry looking so crestfallen after receiving bad news from the vet about the career-threatening injury Frankel had suffered on the Newmarket gallops two months ago. Even now, the pair of them sound emotional about those moments when it appeared the Frankel adventure just might be over.

“Well, when you’ve got something good, you worry about it every day, don’t you?” muses Sir Henry. “Until I see that he’s happy and sound walking across the road, I’m not 100 per cent relaxed.”

On that day in April, Frankel had been on the gallops with his regular work rider Shane Fetherstonhaugh, who ended up anxiously asking himself afterwards how the horse could have picked up the injury.

“I think Shane lost about half a stone last year through riding Frankel,” says Jane. “No wonder. Can you imagine? The responsibility of riding the most talked about horse in the country.”

“It was a nasty injury, an unusual one,” recalls Sir Henry. “When I felt the tendon, though there was a hell of a lot of bruising and swelling, I couldn’t quite feel the telltale sponginess about it so I was hopeful.

“They were going to do a big scan the next day and I rang the Prince [owner Prince Khalid Abdullah] the night before, who told me: ‘If that horse can never run again, I’ve had tremendous fun with him, he’s done more than I ever expected and so don’t worry’.

“I said: ‘I am worried sir, but I do think there’s a very good chance he’ll be all right’.”

The next day, Cecil, who still needs maintenance chemotherapy following his battle to beat stomach cancer, went off to his regular session in a positive mood but when he returned to hear negative diagnoses about the scan results from two vets, he admits: “Having had my chemo and seeing those long faces, whoosh it just knocked me.”

And Jane. “I was so upset, I cried because I could see how sad Henry was, that the news wasn’t what he expected,” she says. “That night, I did feel it might be the end of the adventure with Frankel.”

But not for the first time, Sir Henry’s instinct had been right. “The very next morning, having overcome the shock, I looked at the injury again and felt happier.” Tendon damage was eventually ruled out and Frankel’s gallop into legend resumed at Newbury last month with awesome win number 10 in the Lockinge Stakes.

The return, says Sir Henry, has been “a blessed relief”.

Not just for the yard staff who love their Frankel, but for racing itself. “Nothing’s a certainty in racing but I’d like him to retire [at the end of the season] as an unbeaten champion and I shall do my best to. He’s got the ability as long as things go right,” he says.

“Frankel’s come into people’s hearts now, he’s a national treasure.”

Dee Deacon: Head girl of Frankel’s barn I’m the first and last to see Frankel on any day. At 4.30am, I check what he’s eaten – usually everything and he’s licked the bowl clean! I make up his feeds and he’s got the biggest appetite of any horse I’ve seen in this yard in 14 years; he eats way more than the rest, about 22lb of corn a day. I’m in charge of 33 horses, who all get the same treatment — but you do have to sit back sometimes and think, 'Blimey, this is Frankel’. It’s a privilege but you can’t let it cloud your mind or you’d be a nervous wreck!

He’s a bit highly strung, but generally no trouble, a happy horse. But keep away from those teeth! He’s given me loads of nips. If I go out on a night in short sleeves, it’s like tattoos down my arm! If someone says, 'God how did you get those?’ I can just say all blasé, 'Oh it’s only Frankel!’ If he were a human, he’d be Usain Bolt. He loves what he’s doing, loves entertaining, loves the crowd and being the best. That’s our Frankel. Yep, Frankel Bolt.

Sandeep 'Sandy’ Gauravaram: Frankel’s lad I was a jockey in Hyderabad, India, for 10 years, had a few injuries and got a job offer here. Now I find myself working daily with a horse of a lifetime and I see looking after Frankel to be a great honour. When he first came to the yard, Sir Henry said I could look around if I wanted to pick a horse to look after. I put my name down for Frankel. Talk about getting lucky! The year before the horse I picked never even saw the gallops! I usually see him at 5.15am and though usually very pleasant, he has his days when he has his own ideas on everything. And if he wants something, you can’t say no to him because he’s got too strong a personality. Occasionally, he won’t let you work, he just wants to play with you all the time and you have to keep stroking, patting him, talking to him, giving him extra time and attention. I’ll talk any nonsense to him – about cricket, give him an Indian song, whatever. But if you stop, oh no he doesn’t like it. He’s the star of the stable and knows it! But he’s not an alpha male, he’s more like the schoolboy who keeps getting top marks and likes to show off to his mates.

Mike Marshall: assistant trainer Dee puts bandages on Frankel’s precious legs and I’ll check him most days. You do have to be careful with him because he can be like a bull in a china shop if he gets geed up about something. He can kick out and be in danger of injuring himself. Overall, though, he’s been very good this year; he’s growing up. Frankel’s very strong minded; he was supposed to be moved to join the top horses on what the boss calls 'millionaire’s row’ but got pretty upset when we tried to move him. So we thought he’d better stay where he was in his block of 11, where he seems to be the boss.

Shane Fetherstonhaugh: Frankel’s daily work rider I’ve ridden some very good horses – Derby winner Motivator and Midday, a six-times Group One winner – but this fella is on a different level. It’s a real privilege to have ridden him almost daily since January 2011; chances of me riding anything like this again would be one in a million, I suspect. You just try to treat him like any other horse and though that’s easier said than done, if you started worrying too much about him, you’d never train him would you? He’s matured, not as keen as he used to be, but he’s not a horse you mess around with. You go in there in the morning at about 6.45 and you can see him, head out the window, stood by the door, waiting for you; he loves his work. But he’s not a horse you mess around with. You go in, get out and leave him alone; you have to be businesslike with him because he doesn’t like being bothered. I spend so much time with Frankel every day, it does become a big part of your life and you do get attached. When he retires, if I get the chance, I’d still go and visit him at stud.